Potsdam, NY – Wearing shots off his shins and arms, senior Nick Strandholm stood tall in the Clarkson University Men's Lacrosse team's crease all afternoon against fifth-ranked RIT and his 21 saves proved enough to give the Golden Knights a 9-6 Liberty League win over the Tigers at Hantz Turf Field. The Golden Knights improved to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in conference games, while the Tigers dropped to 5-2 and 1-1. The six goals scored by the Tigers were their fewest since March 2009, a stretch of 159 games. It didn't appear as if Clarkson would be coming away with a defensive-minded victory in the early going, as RIT scored twice in the first seven-plus minutes and held the Knights scoreless through the first quarter. The second quarter, however, saw the Knights take advantage of a penalty to quickly tie things up. Ryan DaRin was tripped up in front of the crease, but nevertheless snuck a shot past RIT goalkeeper Nick Nesbitt at the 12:40 mark, and Conor Bartlett then tallied with just a second left on the ensuing man-up opportunity to make the score 2-2. The Tiger responded just over a minute later to regain the lead, but that was the last time that RIT would hold the advantage. Senior Ryan St. Croix whipped a pair of shots through the RIT defense midway through the quarter to give Clarkson the lead and Kyle Brown ripped another shot past Nesbitt at 6:46 to put Clarkson up 5-3. The two teams traded goals in the final six minutes and Clarkson headed into the locker room with a 6-4 lead. Though the Knights trailed in shots 20-17 at the break, the differential would be even larger in the second half. Nevertheless, Clarkson's defense did an excellent job of blocking RIT's shots, and Strandholm was stopping virtually everything directed at him in the second half. RIT pulled back to within one at the 12:38 mark of the third quarter when Braden Wallace found the twine, but that was the last goal the Tigers would get for another 24 minutes as Clarkson patiently worked the ball around on offense and denied RIT many open looks. The Knights led 7-5 after three quarters and another goal from Ryan St. Croix at the 12:58 mark of the fourth put the Knights up by three. A few minutes later, Paul Bracy found Conor Bartlett following a fast break to give Clarkson a 9-5 lead, and though Patrick Hannigan scored with 3:47 left for the Tigers, it seemed like Strandholm's performance would stand up. RIT outshot Clarkson 30-15 in the second half and Strandholm made stopped 16 of the Tigers' 18 shots on the Knights' frame. Overall, RIT had a 50-32 edge in shots and a 26-21 advantage on groundballs. St. Croix finished three goals and DaRin added two more scores, while Conor Bartlett led Clarkson in points with four thanks to two goals and two assists. Kyle Brown and Shane Kilday also added goals, while Scott Dosser, Paul Bracy and Anthony DiGiovanni each had one assist. Michael Nourse caused two turnovers and had four groundballs. For RIT, Braden Wallace scored twice and Kyle Killen added two points with a goal and one assist. Chad Levick, Patrick Hannigan, and Eli Salama each scored once, while Ryan Lee had one assist. Hannigan also played well on defense with five caused turnovers and seven groundballs while Ben Tackett also scooped up four groundballs. Nesbitt finished with 11 saves for the Tigers